January | 2013 | roncorylus

Last week we walked over Rotsberg – our first organised walk of 2013. It was a good outing and most of what we saw is shown in my previous blog. We did, however, see a klipspringer on top, although it didn’t hang around for too long.

Then, today, we walked to Sopiesklip. It took 12 intrepid hikers to brave the thick mist and occasional shower that accompanied us, but we made it, despite all returning somewhat wet and bedraggled. We had thought that we might see evidence of yesterday’s fire, but we only smelt the ash. Luckily the fire was all but extinguished, but it certainly looked bad yesterday evening, as can be seen from the images.

Klipspringer

Walking in the mist

The sun through the smoke

Smoke from Voelklip

Across the lagoon

Yesterday, Renee and I walked up Droekloof and over Rotsberg. The weather was perfect and by the time we had descended the zig-zag to Voelklip and returned home via the contour path, we had been walking for just short of two and a half hours. Luckily this is an area that was unaffected by the recent devastating fires, and the veld on top of the mountain was especially beautiful. There appeared to be more birds that usual, possibly because many that would normally frequent Vogelgat had moved in. We were lucky to see Ground Woodpeckers and a Cape Rock-jumper, as well as a few Cape Rock Thrushes. As usual the flowers were abundant and the highlight was a magnificent Crassula rupestris.